First ‘three-parent babies’ could be born in the UK next year, after controversial IVF given go-ahead

NHS England today announced it will make up to £8million available to fund treatment for 25 couples, allowing them a form of IVF that aims to reduce the risk of deadly inherited diseases

By Lizzie Parry

15th December 2016,11:43 am

Updated: 15th December 2016,5:10 pm

The NHS will spend £8million offering 25 couples a new “three-parent” IVF treatment, after experts today gave the controversial therapy the go-ahead.

The historical decision by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) means the first procedures could go ahead next spring, with the UK’s first “three-parent” baby born as early as next year.

Earlier this year American doctors, led by Dr John Zhang, delivered the world’s first “three-parent” baby in Mexico. The little boy was born free from the inherited disease his mum carried

The treatment has the potential to allow couples who carry, and therefore risk passing on, deadly genetic diseases to conceive healthy babies.

Though it is dubbed a “three-parent” treatment, babies born as a result of the therapy would only inherit personality traits, those that affect appearance and other features that make a person unique, from their mum and dad – not the donor.

HFEA chair Sally Cheshire said: “Today’s historic decision means that parents at very high risk of having a child with life-threatening mitochondrial disease may soon have the chance of a healthy, genetically related child.

“This is life-changing for those families.”

But critics have warned it marks the first step towards so-called “designer babies”.

Earlier this year the first baby to be born using the technique was welcomed into the world by his parents in Mexico.

The baby boy was born in April after his parents, who are from Jordan, were treated by a team of American specialists in the country.

Now scientists at the University of Newcastle, which has been at the forefront of pioneering the treatment, say they have already lined up women to have the therapy, known as mitochondrial replacement therapy.

Mitochondrial donation offers a real opportunity to cure a class of potentially devastating inherited conditions and will bring hope to hundreds of affected families in the UK

Professor Dagan WellsUniversity of Oxford

The team hopes to treat up to 25 women a year with NHS funding.

Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, who has led the team at Newcastle in developing the new IVF therapy, said they are “delighted” by today’s decision.

“It paves the way offering mitochondrial donation as part of an NHS-funded package of care for families affected by mitochondrial DNA disease,” he said.

“In Newcastle, we will be aiming to treat up to 25 carefully selected patients a year with the mitochondrial donation technique as a clinical risk reduction treatment.

Scientists at the University of Newcastle, which has been at the forefront of pioneering the treatment, hope to treat up to 25 women a year (file image)

Meanwhile, fertility experts across the UK welcomed the decision by the HFEA.

Professor Dagan Wells, of the University of Oxford, said it marks a “real opportunity to cure a class of potentially devastating inherited conditions and will bring hope to hundreds of affected families in the UK”.

He praised the efforts of the team at Newcastle University.

“The HFEA’s decision to allow clinics to apply for permission to perform mitochondrial donation finally opens the way to begin using this technology for the benefit of families that have faced much heartbreak and hardship as a result of carrying a mitochondrial disorder.”

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Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, hailed the announcement a “world-leading step”.

“The NHS has given the world medical innovations ranging from modern cataract surgery, new vaccines and hip replacements, and today we take a world-leading step to harness ground-breaking science for the benefit of our children,” he said.

Fertility clinics in the UK will not automatically be given the right to offer the treatment.

Rather, each clinic will have to apply to the HFEA for permission to do so.

Professor Adam Balen, chair of the British Fertility Society, said given their pivotal role in developing the treatment the Centre for Life at Newcastle University is likely to be the only centre approved to offer the therapy for now.

The pioneering therapy aims to prevent potentially fatal diseases being passed from parents to their offspring.

Babies receiving mitochondrial replacement therapy would receive a tiny amount of DNA from a third person besides their mother and father.

Fertility specialists carrying out the treatment will aim to replace abnormal genes in the mitochondria – small structures that are found in every human cell.

HOW DOES THIS NEW TREATMENT WORK?

Mitochondria are small structures found in our cells.
They generate energy that is used to power every part of our body.
Mitochondria have their own DNA, which only controls mitochondrial function and energy production, according to the Wellcome Trust.
This is completely separate from our nuclear DNA, which is what makes us who we are, governing our appearance and personality.
Mitochondrial disease can be fatal, affecting multiple organs.
It includes diabetes, heart problems, epilepsy and stroke-like incidents, and in serious cases death.
Mitochondrial DNA disease is passed from mother to baby.
The new mitochondrial donation technique, uses DNA from the mitochondria of a healthy donor, the nucleus of a mother’s egg and a father’s sperm to create an embryo.
The technique allows for those women who carry potentially fatal genetic mutations to have healthy babies.
As the nuclear DNA is not altered, mitochondrial donation will not affect a child’s appearance or personality or any other features that make a person unique.
It simply allows for a child to be free of mitochondrial disease.

Source: The Wellcome Trust

To do so involves taking the DNA from the mother’s egg that bears the faulty genes, and transferring it into a donor egg, with healthy mitochondria.

Because the nucleus from the mother’s egg is used the technique does not affect the baby’s appearance, personality, or other traits that make a person unique.

It simply allows the mitochondria – which only controls a cell’s energy production – to function normally, allowing a child to be born free of mitochondrial disease, which can prove fatal.

Mitochondria only hold around 0.1 per cent of a person’s DNA, which is always inherited from the mother and has no influence over individual characteristics.